Friday, June 27, 2014
Work and Rest Pics
Work and Rest
We have had the opportunity to engage in
many facets of ministry this week; it’s been an exciting and fruitful seven
days. Saturday was mainly spent working
at the Bantu church construction site. The
majority of the walls, doors, and window frames are completed, and this past
weekend the trusses went up to support the roof. The Bantu church is gray stone with peaked
windows all around, and it is situated next to a massive African tree. The trusses are huge and elevate the roof of
the church high above other buildings in Bantu.
As one of our guards, Katama, said as he watched the trusses go up from
our house, “guyyaa baareedaa!” or “beautiful day!” It will be a beautiful house of the Lord when
it is completed.
Much work was also needed on the Bantu
church well this week. It is a
relatively deep well compared to many hand-dug wells in the area, and it has
had a problem with caving in at the bottom.
The men have worked all week to dig out and sink concrete supports down
to the water line. It’s incredible how
far down the digger climbs into the well.
We were also blessed to have Ted Mettetal and Jimmy Leatherwood from
Hope Springs Water here this week. They
have been rehabilitating a truck-mounted drilling rig that will be able to bore
deep water wells in the near future. Ted
and Jimmy also worked on getting a solar-power pump up and running for the
Bantu church well. This will allow the
church to pump water even on days the electricity is off.
Sunday morning we traveled out to Bili
Malima, the village where The Woodlands team held VBS, and met with 16
believers for the first service of their new church plant. It was quite a journey. We drove as far as we could until the mud got
too deep, and then we walked the remainder of the way. Larry carried Matthew, Berhanu carried the
guitar, I carried the backpack with all our Bibles, and the boys just worked
not to fall over in the mud. Our feet
were covered in mud by the time we made it to the house for church, but the
difficulty in getting there only made the occasion more meaningful. Larry preached a message on new life, and it
is so awesome to contemplate the new life God is bringing to this community.
I got to meet with the Bantu Ladies’
program on Monday evening for their weekly meeting. It was such a great experience to be with these
women as they worshiped and prayed. They
were very gracious to allow me to join with them. While we are here, I will have the
opportunity to share some biblical storytelling practices with them. Our goal is to teach them the methods of
biblical storytelling just like the pastors learn in the Bible Institute. We’re focusing on five stories that teach
“Jesus is Lord” that they can memorize and tell to friends, neighbors, and
family members who are unbelievers. I
had a wonderful time sharing with the women and learning from them.
On the more personal side of things, Thursday
night we got to host Berhanu, Shewa, and their baby, Yacob, for dinner in our
home. We are so thankful for their
friendship and fellowship, and we loved the chance to play with Yacob. I have also started working with Berhanu on
learning some computer programs that would be useful for the Bantu church. He is a tremendous help for us in learning
the Oromiffa language. We also got a
goat this week, compliments of Jim. The
grass in our yard has grown pretty long now that a fence is up and keeps
grazing livestock out, and we thought a goat would solve the problem and be fun
for the boys. He is a little black billy
goat about six months old, and it’s fun to see the boys lead him around the way
they do Baxter back home. We named him
“Abdi” which in Oromiffa means “hope.”
It has rained like crazy over the past
five days, multiple times a day. The
ground is completely saturated and the mud is everywhere and deep. As inconvenient as it is for us, rain is life
to the people here who survive as subsistence farmers. It does make ministry challenging though…we are
planning to go out to Abebee to distribute 2000 Meals 4 Multitudes and to show
the Jesus film in Oromiffa at the Bantu church as a community event. We are waiting for an evening without rain to
show the film and dry enough ground that we can cross the rivers on the road to
Abebee.
We did brave the trek out to Abebee on Thursday
afternoon so that we could coordinate a day to distribute meals. We made it
halfway in the car and only got stuck in the mud once. Then we waded through a creek, traveled by “gaarrii”
or horse cart to the river, waded the river, and traveled by gaarrii to the
Abebee church. We are (hopefully) set to
distribute meals on Monday. While there
we discovered the Abebee church well was out of commission, so Larry and the
pastors were able to get that back up and running. Then we made the long (and muddy) trip
home. Thursday morning, in the midst of
a rain storm, we stood at our front door and watched a moth migration. Thousands of moths flew past our house…it was
a great picture of perseverance under trial.
Tonight Larry is picking up his mother,
Linda, at the airport for a ten day stay!
We are so excited to have Mimi visit and experience life here with
us. It will be a great encouragement to
us as we reach the halfway point of our summer here in Ethiopia. Would you pray for continued opportunities
this week as Larry preaches Sunday morning in Bantu, we distribute Meals 4
Multitudes in Abebee and Bottonee, the ladies’ program, showing the Jesus film,
and whatever else God places in our path?!
We will head back into town next Monday evening (July 7) for our weekly
Addis trip. Have a wonderful week!
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Pics from The Woodlands' Team
The Harvest is Here, Your Kingdom is Near
We are so excited to share with you all
that God has done to advance His kingdom these past five days. This was a week of tremendous encouragement
and fellowship for us as we were joined by wonderful friends from our home
church. What a blessing to be
surrounded by their love and support this week.
What an incredible week! We drove out early Sunday morning and joined
the Bantu church for worship. After the
service was over, the church walked about 15 minutes to the river for a baptism
ceremony. The choir led the way with
singing and drums, and the congregation followed. The river is a community place, and as we
gathered for the baptism, others were gathered to wash clothes, haul water, and
bathe. Our pastors were able to share
the Gospel message to many who will not walk through the gates of the church. Ten new believers were baptized this Sunday. It was truly a celebration of new life, and
we were honored to be able to take part in it.
The walk down to the river was tiring,
but the walk up was pretty exhausting.
The African sun, 8,000 feet elevation, two streams to cross, a constant
uphill, and three little boys made for a difficult trek. But it also provided a wonderful opportunity
to see the body of Christ at work as our American and Ethiopian friends
continuously came along side to help get our boys back to the church.
Vacation Bible School was an incredible
experience this year. We hosted VBS in a
small cabalee outside the village of Abebee.
A cabalee is a very tiny village…bigger than just a hamlet of ten or so
homes, but not large enough to have stores or a market. We were invited to Bili Malima by a family of
believers who attend the Abebee church.
They have been eager to start a church in their own cabalee, and were
gracious hosts for this first evangelism effort. We could not have asked for a more picture
perfect site…a very large courtyard area surrounded by the family’s huts and a
huge African tree providing shade. About
150 children attended each day, and they were so wonderfully behaved and eager
to participate and hear about Jesus. It was a perfect situation for us with the
boys; the children were friendly and interested but not overwhelming. The boys had a great time attending Bible
school and making friends. It was a very
fruitful week in Bili Malima. About 200
children, women, and men heard the Gospel, and 15 became new believers in
Christ! A new church has been planted,
and we will go this Sunday to celebrate the first service in Bili Malima!
We spent our afternoons in Abebee at the
new church site. Our ladies led Bible programs
for women each day and told Bible stories to the children gathered around. About 60 women attended the Bible programs
and around 100 children heard the Bible stories. Our hope is that these interactions will fuel
interest and they will come to the Abebee church to learn more. The men on the team helped in the
construction of the new church building and worked to complete the water well
on the church property. We were able to
frame the doors and windows for the church and get the well up and running. Next week we will have the opportunity to
pass out Meals 4 Multitudes at the school in Abebee.
This week has been a wonderful
encouragement to us from a ministry perspective, and we are looking forward to
many more opportunities to serve in the coming weeks. We are doing well in other areas too. Josh has a cold, so we could use some prayers
that it is short lived and the rest of the boys stay healthy. We could also use prayers for good rest; we
are pretty tired at the end of each day.
We’ll be back into town next Friday…thank you for all your love and
support!
Saturday, June 14, 2014
New Pics!
Broken
Tonight we are in Addis for another
quick trip. We came in this morning to
meet the Jacksons, take them and Russell shopping, drop Russell off for his
flight home, and pick up the rest of The Woodlands team from the airport. We head back out early tomorrow morning so
that we can be back at church in Bantu for Sunday morning worship. Today has been very busy as we’ve had to fit in
a two hour car trip, shopping for souvenirs, grocery shopping for us and the 15
person team, laundry, exchanging water bottles and propane tanks, and enough
internet and Skype time to last for another week.
Grocery shopping here is very different
from how I shop in the states. First I
head down the street to the roadside produce stand. I have found a very good one where the men
are kind and speak a pretty good amount of English. Today I bought 3 papayas, 2 bunches of
bananas, 6 apples, 1 kilo potatoes, 10 tomatoes, and 10 avocadoes for the
equivalent of $12. Next I head to my
favorite grocery store, Abadir, where I can buy most everything else I
need. Then I double back to a second
store to fill in what the first lacked.
I’m limited on what I can refrigerate in the guest house overnight, so I
buy items I need to freeze the night before and pick up the rest the next
morning on the way out of town. You
can’t buy ice for a cooler, so I freeze ground beef and buy frozen chickens to
keep everything cool on our two our ride out to our home. It’s been a learning experience.
As you can probably tell from the title,
the theme of this week has been “broken.”
Since our last blog post a week ago, we’ve had a car that won’t start
twice, two flat tires, the circuit breaker on our generator break in the ‘off’
position, a brand new faucet snap at the attachment while Larry was putting it
on, a sink begin leaking, an inverter burn up, a massive window leak, and a
septic pipe that had to be dug up, cleaned out, and replaced. We’re pretty sure there’s something else
that we just can’t remember now. It’s
been a little exhausting on the repair side of things this week. One thing we’re learning is that maintaining
a home here is a constant job.
House repairs weren’t the only broken
things we dealt with this week. Last
Sunday as we drove back into the village before church, we witnessed a large
crowd of people attending a ceremony just up the road from our home. We discovered that it was a Waqqefachuu
gathering, an animistic worship service.
We’ve never seen one before, and it was a powerful reminder for how
broken this world is that we all live in.
It is heartbreaking to see people trust in lies, seek that which can
never satisfy, and look for answers where there are none. Daily living is hard here, but it is worth it
if God will use us to help repair just a little of the brokenness.
We are really excited about the ministry
coming up this week. The Woodlands team
will lead VBS in a new little village called Bili Malima outside our sister
village of Abebee. There is currently
one believing family in this village, and they are eager to plant a church in
their home village. We’ll also host a
Ladies’ ministry program, work on finishing a water well, and help with the construction
of the new church building in Abebee.
This past week we held a four day session of the Rural Pastors’ Bible
Institute. How awesome to see 43 men and
women gathered faithfully for study, prayer, and instruction in God’s
word. We are honored to have been able
to teach there again. We have also been
so grateful to have Larry’s brother-in-law, Russell, here this week. What a tremendous help, support, blessing,
and encouragement he has been to us and the boys.
Thank you so much for your love and
prayers. We need them! We will be back in town next Thursday, so
look for another blog post then!
Saturday, June 7, 2014
Pics From Our First Week in Bantu
Logan and Josh's first horse cart ride with Daddy and Pastor Berhanu.
Don't you have livestock in your backyard?
Taking a work break in Chuck's hammock.
Do you see the four monkeys in this picture? Hint...two are in blue shirts.
Enjoying the park and monkey reserve.
Handmade ladder and water tank tower from eucalyptus trees...Superman Chuck.
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